Certain current airbags for passenger vehicles frequently comprise two circular pieces of fabric sewn or woven together. Because the fabric from which the airbags are made typically is supplied in linear rolls, substantial waste remains after circular pieces are cut from the linear rolls. Indeed, useful bag surface obtained from the total surface available on a roll is usually no greater than eighty-seven percent, resulting in waste equivalent to at least thirteen percent of the total available fabric.
Whether or not circular, two-panel airbags often are used for front-seat passengers because they are easy to produce, in that they may be sewn flat at their perimeters or peripheries. Generally, however, these bags are not well adapted for placement in automobile dashboards, potentially degrading deployment and stability during occupant impact. Consequently, three-panel bags have been designed for better correspondence with dashboard surfaces.
Such three-panel bags may comprise two lateral panels of identical shape and one frontal panel of different shape. Including multiple panels of different shapes complicates the design, though, increasing assembly difficulty. Further, fabric consumption likely will be greater than for simpler designs, as nesting of multiple, complex shapes on linear rolls is difficult.
Needed, therefore, are airbag designs permitting more efficient usage of fabric or similar materials from which they are constructed. For at least some bags, further, needed are designs well fitted to complement surfaces of dashboards of automobiles. Such airbags additionally should, if possible, be easy to assemble.